California's secretary of state's office said Tuesday that a ballot measure to split the Golden State into three — California, Northern California, and Southern California — had gotten more than enough valid signatures to make it onto the November ballot. The initiative was spearheaded by Silicon Valley venture capitalist and cryptocurrency enthusiast Tim Draper, whose previous efforts to split California into six states failed due to insufficient valid signatures. If successful, the plan would potentially create the first division of a state since West Virginia was hewn off of Virginia in 1863.

Northern California would stretch from just north of Monterey across to Nevada and up to Oregon, encompassing the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, and Napa Valley wine country. New California would be a coastal stretch from Monterey down through Los Angeles, while Southern California would encompass the rest of Southern California, including Death Valley, San Diego, and Orange County.

California, the most populous U.S. state, is no stranger to attempts at geopolitical reinvention — in its 168 years as a state, more than 200 attempts have been made to split it apart, change its boundaries, or withdraw it from the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reports, with the most recent three-state split shot down in the state legislature in 1993.

But even if Draper's plan passes — a poll in April pegged it at 17 percent support, 72 percent opposition — it would face legal challenges, and California's legislature would almost certainly have to approve it, as would Congress. Both approvals are seen as unlikely. The plan would create four new U.S. senators and dilute California's Electoral College power. "Initial analyses suggest that Northern California and California would remain reliably Democratic, while Southern California would be a swing state," The Mercury News reports. Peter Weber

A natural gas explosion in Denver's historic Baker neighborhood leveled an apartment building on Tuesday, leaving at least nine injured, one critically.

Fire officials said this was the biggest home explosion Denver has seen in 10 years, 9 News reports. The building was a fourplex, Denver Fire Captain Greg Pixley said, and two people were trapped in rubble and had to be rescued by first responders. No one else is believed to be trapped in the debris, but fire officials will go in and search once it's considered safe. An investigation into what triggered the blast is underway. Catherine Garcia

This is a man's world. But not for long, if Taraji P. Henson has anything to say about it.

The Oscar nominee infiltrates the boy's club in the trailer for her latest film, What Men Want. In a gender-swapped remake of the 2000 romantic comedy, What Women Want, Henson's character Ali Davis struggles to climb the corporate ladder due to the sexism engrained within her company. Under the guidance of her friends, Davis turns to a spiritual guide — appropriately played by the enigmatic Erykah Badu — who makes her drink a "special" concoction. Soon after, she realizes she has the ability to read men's minds.

What initially seems like a curse becomes one of Davis' greatest assets as she seeks to fix the culture within her office. Henson is joined in the cast by Hollywood favorites like Mark Cuban, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Phoebe Robinson, and Tracy Morgan, who combine to turn the cult classic on its head.

What Men Want is in good hands under the direction of Adam Shankman, also known for directing Hairspray, The Wedding Planner, and Bringing Down the House. The film sashays into theaters on Jan. 11, 2019. Watch the full trailer below. Amari Pollard

Officials in Nebraska used fentanyl to execute a felon Tuesday, the first time the drug was ever used in an execution in the U.S., reports The New York Times.

Carey Dean Moore, 60, was convicted of killing two taxi drivers in 1979, and the state went forward with the controversial decision to execute him by lethal injection at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. The Timesreports that officials used a mixture of four different drugs, which had never before been tested. The mixture included a tranquilizer, a muscle relaxant, potassium chloride to stop the heart, and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that has garnered attention in the nation's rising opioid epidemic.

On Monday, a federal appeals court rejected an attempt by the German pharmaceutical company Fresenius Kabi to stop the execution; Fresenius Kabi said two of its drugs, the muscle relaxant and potassium chloride, would be used in the lethal cocktail, but claimed Nebraska obtained the drugs illegally, The Guardian reports. The drug company argued that the drugs had been improperly stored, which could lead to a painful execution.

Reporters who were in the room said the execution didn't appear to have any complications, with Moore mouthing "I love you" to his chosen witnesses, then breathing heavily and coughing before his death. It was the first execution in Nebraska since 1997, when state officials used an electric chair to carry out the death penalty. Read more at The New York Times.Summer Meza

The Washington Nationals have not been super great in the ballpark lately, so fans of the beleaguered team are looking to celebrate alternate expanses of grass and dirt.

After their team gave up walk-off home runs on consecutive nights — first a grand-slam blast to Chicago Cubs rookie David Bote on Sunday, then a neat dinger to St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong on Monday — fans of the D.C. baseball team sought to commiserate in the Nationals' dedicated subreddit. But rather than debate the franchise's embattled managers, or its subpar relief pitching, or its general malaise, Nats fans turned to the great outdoors to ease their pain.

You see, while "the Nationals" tends to refer to the MLB team in the nation's capital, if you think creatively enough, it can really be shorthand for "the National( Park)s (of America)":

Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes and White House leaks.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders knows this to be true, telling reporters Tuesday that she "can't guarantee anything" when it comes to the next tape that former senior adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman will inevitably release.

Manigault Newman has alleged that President Trump has said the N-word on tape, and gave CBS News a recording of Trump campaign officials allegedly discussing the existence of such a tape to corroborate her claim. Trump himself took to Twitter to insist that "there are NO TAPES" of him using "such a terrible and disgusting word."

Sanders couldn't make things quite so clear, leaving some room for the possibility that more recordings will emerge. She said she had "never heard him use that term or anything similar," but when asked whether she could "guarantee the American people they'll never hear Donald Trump utter the N-word on a recording in any context," she replied, "I can't guarantee anything," and could only say that if people in the administration thought Trump was racist, they "wouldn't be here." Sanders added that she "hasn't been in every room" to know for certain whether tapes exist.

Instead, Sanders pointed to policies that have reduced the unemployment rate among African-Americans, claiming against evidence that Trump has already tripled the accomplishments of former President Barack Obama. Watch the moment below, via Fox News. Summer Meza

American millennials may have ruined mayonnaise, but at least they haven't launched an avocado black market.

That's what's happened in New Zealand, as low avocado harvests has driven the average cost of one fruit to $3.30. New Zealand refuses to import the toast-topper, jacking prices up 37 percent in the past year, The New York Times reports.

Guacamole lovers have tried to avoid high prices by growing their own avocado trees, but they are often put on a waitlist at nurseries, the Times says. Others see an opportunity to turn green into gold and have started nabbing avocados in the night: Two thieves were recently caught smuggling $4,300 of avocados out of an orchard in duvet covers, the Times reports. Another pair tried using a hook to pull fruits off a tree and escaped on a mobility scooter.

These thieves' plots may have been smashed, but one farmer reported 70 percent of his avocados were stolen last year, per The New Zealand Herald. Growers have taken to surrounding trees with razor wire or installing security systems to protect their crops.

The sheer volume of these stolen avocados suggests they're likely sold in small shops or used for food service. "It's clearly not for their own consumption," Alasdair Macmillan, New Zealand's coordinator of community policing, told the Times. "You can only put so much avocado on your burger or in your sushi," Macmillan continued — indicating he's never seen the full power of a dedicated millennial mind. Kathryn Krawczyk

Manigault Newman appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday to claim that she witnessed "a lot of corruption that went on both in the campaign and in the White House."

The former Apprentice contestant, who departed her White House role in January, has the GOP and President Trump on edge now that she is doing a media tour to promote her new tell-all book, suddenly vowing to "expose" the administration's hidden secrets and alleging that Trump is a proven racist and misogynist.

Manigault Newman claimed Trump "absolutely" knew in advance that WikiLeaks would make public a trove of leaked emails from Hillary Clinton. She said he knew they were forthcoming, but opted not to say how he knew. She further did not offer any evidence to support the claim, though she did reveal that she has been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for more details.

Manigault Newman went on to say that White House staffers are worried about Mueller's investigation into whether the Trump campaign was involved with Russian election interference, and claimed Trump would grab women and kiss them without their consent at "any time of any day." When MSNBC's Katy Tur asked Manigault Newman why viewers should believe her, the former White House employee promised that "every single thing" from her book Unhinged had been verified — and more ominously, documented. Watch the full interview below, via MSNBC. Summer Meza